The Quickie: Three (and a Half) Things We Learned At UFC 101

I can hear the hate coming already but the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world right now resides in the UFC. Of course, Fedor Emelianenko, the long time P4P king, is not in the UFC but you know who is? Anderson Silva.

That's right, after his first-round pummeling of former light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin, I am ready to name the middleweight as the greatest fighter in the world. There are very, very few people who thought that Silva would handle Griffin the way that he did and he showed that he is ready for whatever the UFC throws his way.

If you don't like "The Spider," I'll say I might even rank GSP ahead of Fedor. And "The Last Emperor" won't be helped by the lackluster competition he will find outside of the UFC... should've dropped M-1 if you wanted to keep your crown as MMA's king. Regardless, it's safe to say that the best fighter in the world resides in the UFC.

Kenny Florian showed that he is no slouch and was a more than worthy opponent. And BJ Penn reiterated that he is the best lightweight in the world.

Penn looked impressive in his fourth-round submission of KenFlo. Say what you will about the polarizing Hawaiian but he looked damn good tonight and he may dominate the lightweight class for a long time now that he learned the hard way that welterweight is not for him.

Johnny Hendricks is FOR REAL

Hendricks was my "lock" going into the card and, despite a controversial early stoppage, he dominated the former TUF Champion Sadollah. Maybe Sadollah proved that he is far from where most TUF champs are after the show but regardless of your opinion on the inexperienced Sadollah, how can you not be impressed with Hendricks?

The two-time NCAA wrestling champion showed that he is ready for a real test from the UFC in making quick work of Sadollah.

And the half of a thing we learned at UFC 101 because nobody really cares but I'll toot my own horn...

I'm very unimpressive at prediciting the preliminary bouts

Going into UFC 101, I thought I knew the preliminary fighters pretty well. At least, more so than your average fan. Wrong.... or my guys just had an off night. I went 4-1 for the main card (depending upon if you count TKO and KO the same or unanimous decision and split decision as the same I predicted the fighter and how he won in three fights).

The prelim card was a whole different story, though. I went 2-4 and even missed what I felt was the sure thing on the undercard: Thales Leites with an early stoppage.

Alessio Sakara proved that he is no joke. Aaron Riley looked like a completely different fighter than whoever showed up under his name in his last fight and was immediately knocked out in the first as he got revenge on Shane Nelson. Matt Riddle's unanimous decision over Dan Cramer also caught me semi-off guard.

The Results (In Order):

Jesse Lennox TKO (cut) Danillo Villefort, 3rd

George Sotiropoulous submits George Roop, 2nd

Matt Riddle unanimous decision over Dan Cramer

Alessio Sakara split decision over Thales Leites

John Howard split decision over Tamdan McCrory

Kurt Pellegrino unanimous decision over Josh Neer

Ricardo Almeida unanimous dec. over Kendall Grove

Johnny Hendricks TKO Amir Sadollah, 1st

Aaron Riley unanimous decision over Shane Nelson

Anderson Silva KO Forrest Griffin, 1st

BJ Penn submits Kenny Florian, 4th

Big night again tomorrow for WEC 42 so my analysis was quick but overall, it was another great card put on by Dana White and company.